CLOGS and shawls were the standard workwear for these young women surface workers at Parsonage Colliery in Leigh.
They were pictured in 1925 enjoying their snap time with a ‘Tommy can’ of cold tea to wash down what might have been a jam or dripping ‘butty’.
The image with a Wigan Coal and Iron Company railway wagon in the background is one of many interesting ones featured in mining historian Alan Davies and photo librarian Len Hudson’s pictorial history of The Wigan Coalfield.
The other photograph, which appears in the book, is a Leigh Journal image from August 1955 when pit brow lasses lined-up for a farewell shot at Astley Green Colliery after the National Coal Board dispensed with their services on the coal screens there.
Anyone who is interested in learning more about local history spanning the past three centuries will be pleased that there’s a nostalgic autumn programme of events at the Museum of Wigan Life in Library Street, Wigan.
On Tuesday, November 7, Mr Davies, who lives in Tyldesley, will explore how these women battled proposals to ban them from the mines and how their unique working wear made them famous to the Victorian public.
He will relate their story from the 1840s until the last Pit Brow Lassie of the Wigan Coalfield finished work in 1966. The event runs from 12pm until 1.15pm and admission is £2.50 including tea or coffee.
Lynda Jackson, Community History Manager at the museum, said: “The workshops and talks offer a real insight into the past and are ideal for anyone interested in learning more about the borough’s heritage.”
Details of events at the museum can be found at www.wlct.org
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